According to the Christian belief, Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to carry the humans woes. Thus the film starts by showing the pain of humans occurring at the same time with the sufferings of Jesus.
Patty is lying awake one night in a church basement, distraught and scared. She is to be executed the next morning for refusing to take the Mark of the Beast. Patty knows what lies ahead if she takes the mark but can still not believe in Christ. When those around her try to comfort her and encourage her to accept the Lord, she lashes out at them, too scared to think straight. They are able to calm her down, however, and learn her story of how she got to the point she is at tonight....
The story is set during 1917 and 1918, leading into American involvement in World War I, in the central California coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas. Cal (James Dean) and Aron (Richard Davalos) are the sons of a modestly successful farmer and wartime draft board chairman, Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). Cal is moody and embittered by his belief that his father favors Aron. Although both Cal and Aron had long been led to believe that their mother had died "and gone to heaven," the opening scene reveals Cal has apparently learned that his mother is still alive, owning and running a successful brothel in nearby Monterey.
À chaque obscurité survenue, Mel, le prêtre-astronome, et Rupo, son disciple, observent le ciel depuis les ruines d'une colline. Or, une nuit précisément, les voici fortement troublés par la présence d'une étoile filante dont l'éclat et l'intensité offrent un caractère inaccoutumé. Mel l'interprète comme l'accomplissement de la Prophétie, celle de la venue du Messie. Ils se mettent donc en route, suivis par de nombreux habitants, issus de toutes conditions sociales : notables, marchands, paysans, artisans, mendiants, voleurs ou prostituées, tous désirent célébrer l'événement et accomplir offrande au Sauveur futur. Au cours de ce long chemin, parsemé de risques et d'obstacles, et, au cours duquel hélas tous ne reviendront pas, deux caravanes s'unissent à eux. Ils découvrent enfin le Rédempteur dans un village retiré et sous les traits d'un nouveau-né. Ils lui rendent témoignage de piété et d'infini respect. Toutefois, il leur faut se méfier d'une ville-garnison voisine, soumise à un monarque despotique et envieux. Les pèlerins, craignant une éventuelle agression, se dispersent en effaçant toute trace de leur passage.
Patty Jo Myers is a young woman who considers herself a Christian because she occasionally reads her Bible and goes to church regularly. She refuses to believe the warnings of her friends and family that she will go through the Great Tribulation if she does not accept Jesus. One morning, she awakens to find that her family and millions of others have suddenly disappeared. Gradually, Patty realizes that the Rapture, an event some interpret from the Bible, has happened and she and everyone else left behind are entering into the Great Tribulation, the last days of Earth, dominated by the Antichrist. A government system called UNITE (United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency) is set up and those who do not receive the mark identifying them with UNITE will be arrested. Patty desperately tries to avoid the law and the mark but is captured by UNITE. Patty escapes but is cornered by UNITE on a bridge, and falls from the bridge to her death.
Abram lives in Harran, a rich city. His wife Sarah (Barbara Hershey) is childless, and their only heir is Eliezer of Damascus. One day he hears the voice of God, who says that he must leave Haran and travel to an unknown land. God promises to make a great nation from him and renames him Abraham. The pattern for the plot is the Genesis chapters 11-25.
In the Beginning is the story about the travels and travails of the tribe of Abraham (Martin Landau). Set around the year 2000 B.C., the narrative opens with "Genesis 12," wherein the LORD has told Abraham and company to leave their country to a land of milk and honey to be named later. In order to keep up the morale of his followers while on the road, Abraham gives a sermon that sums up God's creation of the universe. By illustrating this sermon with stock footage and special-effects shots, the producers attempt to make a connection between sermons of old and popular entertainments of today. From there, the twists and turns of the Old Testament are treated like a soap opera. Family dramas take center stage, whether it's God testing Abraham by telling him to kill his son in sacrifice, Joseph gaining power in Egypt after being sold to slave traders by his brothers, or one of the many other stories of brothers fighting (Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, etc.). Many events are visualized such as the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, to name but two.
God creates the universe. Lucifer mocks God for the shortcomings of humanity, which he predicts will soon aspire to become God. As the primaeval spirit of negation, he claims to be as old as God and demands his share of the world, which he is granted in the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality.
Shortly before the crucifixion of Christ, Pontius Pilate offers to release either Jesus Christ or Barabbas in keeping with the local custom. As the Bible story goes, Barabbas is the one the crowd chooses.